1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a short fiber-containing down-feather wadding and a process for producing the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a down-feather wadding in which functional chemical fibers are uniformly mixed with down-feathers and a process for producing the same.
The down-feather wadding here referred to means a wadding containing a mixture of downs and feathers having an excellent heat-retaining property at a ratio of from 0 to 100%. The downs refer to those in which yarn-like barbs are grown on tips of quills (attached to the skin of fowl through bases), and the feathers refer to those in which many barbs are grown on quills in rows and tiny barbs are further grown on the barbs in rows.
2. Description of Related Art
Down-feathers find wide acceptance in a down-feather mattress or comforter, a feather pillow, down-wear, a sleeping bag and the like.
It is sometimes requested to impart a far-infrared effect, a deodorant activity, a microbicidal activity, an acaridan-proof, a fire resistance and the like to down-feathers.
However, down-feathers are usually collected from waterfowl such as geese, ducks and the like, and have a high level of a water repellency (a ratio of a nonpolar amino acid is high on surfaces thereof). Accordingly, it was ordinarily difficult to impart activities by dissolving chemicals in a warm water bath and absorbing the same into down-feathers with stirring.
Meanwhile, it is also considered that chemical or natural fibers which have been subjected to the above mentioned treatment are mixed with down-feathers (in the case of chemical fibers, the chemicals can be incorporated therein at the spinning stage).
For example, rayon, polyester fibers, acrylic fibers and polyamide fibers which are typical chemical fibers are all polar materials. Cotton, hemp, silk and wool are fibers having a cellulose structure or a peptide structure, and these are also polar materials.